Hospital model to mimic catastrophic earthquakes

A five-story building now under construction at UC San Diego will soon be equipped with hospital beds, computers, a surgical center and even an intensive care unit.

Then the shaking begins.

The entire building will rock at speeds as fast as six feet a second. Motions will simulate a whole suite of historic earthquakes, including the 7.9magnitude Denali earthquake of 2002 and the 6.7 magnitude Northridge quake of 1994.

Engineers designed this experiment to study how a hospital's inner workings - pipes, stairwells, elevators, computers - will fare in extreme shaking.

In the past, researchers focused more on the fortitude of beams, columns and other structural features. But recent quakes worldwide have underscored how non-structural damage can put a hospital out of service by toppling interior walls and shutting off water, gas and electricity, experts said.

The full-scale concrete building sits atop the world's largest outdoor "shake table," a device used to study how structures might perform during earthquakes.

Its top two stories will house the model hospital, complete with pipes, gas lines, sprinkler systems and working elevator. Hospitals are donating used medical equipment, and funders include the National Science Foundation and the California Seismic Safety Commission.

Even when the shaking is done, the scrutiny will continue. Researchers will ignite a fire to learn if quake damage has undermined the building's ability to withstand a fire, said Fred Turner, staff structural engineer at the state commission.